Thursday, October 30, 2014

I received this book as a prize from one of the FM radio stations my OH and I listen during one of their appearances at a local business.

“Home Sweet Home” is a heart-warming, like the homemade chicken soup my mother used to make, collection of 101 short stories from contributors coming from all walks of life. Each story is a true account of these individual’s personal life, the good times and the bad. These stories tell of the long-lasting decisions families had to make; they tell of the making of a mere house into their homes.

We can all share our own experience with those of these in the stories they’ve written; from the physical, do-it-yourself disasters affecting our homes to the arrival of unwanted guests [family].

“Home Sweet Home” is definitely not the type of book you can read in a single reading; you need to take each story one at a time before moving on to the next one. You need allow yourself an opportunity to experience it and reflect how each one pertains to your own life, you could find out you’re not alone.

I feel it heart-warming that I’m able to give 5 STARS.

Robin Leigh Morgan is the author of “I Kissed a Ghost,” a MG/YA Paranormal romance novel.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Imagine
being, orphaned at a young age and being raised in foster homes your entire
life. You have no knowledge of your family, nor do you have any knowledge of
heritage you might have. Such is how
Chasca Leon’s began her life.

After
Chasca leaves home, she finds a job and lives a relatively mundane life until
one fateful when on her way home she gets kidnapped. But as “FATE” would have
it, her two rescuers are the ones who are going to help Chasca to discover her
heritage and the “hidden” powers she possesses. She discovers who she can trust,
who she can fall in love with, and the prophecy in which she plays an intricate
part.

“FATE”
is a wondrous mix of romance, action, adventure with a touch of the paranormal.
Once I started reading it, the book became a page turner which I couldn’t put
down. You must read this book in one sitting, or else you’ll probably lose the
emotions which have built up inside your mind and the desire of what’s going to
happen next.

If
I can find the time, I’m going to download / read / review the other two books
in this series.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

As you know by now I had officially declared myself a BOOK REVIEWER at the end of August of this year.And as a book reviewer I didn't want to be inundated with requests to do reviews so I set up my own set of guidelines as to what books I'm going to review.To begin with, we all love to enter the RaffleCopter giveaways we constantly see on FaceBook, and I love to enter them as well. However, I only enter those contests for which there are books [e-books usually] I'd like to read, after which these are the books I'm going to review. I also love to enter the GiveAways on GoodReads where only REAL BOOKS are offered. On GoodReads in the guidelines they tell you that if you should win a book, you should write a review in consideration for having won the book. In the review you're advised to indicate the fact you've won the book as a giveaway. So far I've won about 6 books which I've received; two of them have been ARCs [Advanced Readers Copy] which are in reality Galley Proofs and are marked as such, two of them have been, some of the final version of the books I've received I got several days before the books where on the shelves of B & N.

Naturally I also read/review those books I've bought myself.

All of my reviews get posted on: Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk/ and other sites if the author lives thereGoodReads.comLibraryThing.com

and occasionally as on my blog sites.But with more and more books becoming available in a KINDLE format I'm now reading these books as well, especially since I now have KINDLE Unlimited where I'm choosing more and more books to read which interests me.

Right from the beginning of “Love Those Hula Hips”, the author, Jackie Marilla, makes you feel as if you’re right next to James Westerman, as you both experience the sights and smells of Hawaii for the first time.

But James is not there to take in the sun and relax; he’s there on a mission, a mission which could finally earn the respect from his father he desperately desires. He’s there to oversee the day to day operation of the Kona Breezeway Inn, the inn his father has invested a great deal of money in.

The moment James Westerman arrives at the inn with his lawyer, Sam Sagal, he feels as if he’s a time warp, where everything at the check-in desk is still becoming handle using pens and paper, and not a computer in sight. He realizes he has a monumental task in front of him to bring the inn and its employees into the 21st Century, so it can finally turn a profit. The only thing James hadn’t expect is the owner, Hokulani Kawela’s [Hoku], resistance to make any of the much needed changes; nor did he expect the changes the island’s lifestyle would have on him.

Then there’s Hoku herself, from the moment she positioned herself six feet from James at the hula show, he got “mesmerized by Hokulani’s onyx hair and matching dark eyes, he tracked her flowing mane to her undulating hips and gaped when she stood in front of him. Her smile was magnetic and her hands delicate, but the way she moved her hips captivated him the most. He needed to know more about her.” James couldn’t anticipate the huge changes she’ll have on him as well.”

Jackie Marilla used just the right blend of business, the Hawaiian culture and romance to make her novel an extremely enjoyable read. Once I got hooked into the events in the storyline, I didn’t want to put the book down, and was able to complete a slow read so as not miss anything, in a single afternoon reading.

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to enjoyan afternoon in an island paradise that most of us can only dream about going to. “Love Those Hula Hips” is an entertaining novella suit for adults who’re interested in a sweet romance without an abundance of sex or sex references; it is also quite suitable for NA [new adult] readers as well. Which is why I love giving this novella 5 STARS.

I found the premise for J.P. Sitler’s “Fugue” promising, reminding me a little of Walter Mitty and his continuously drifting out of reality and into his dream world after overhearing something being said. Her characters play well into her storyline and you get decent sense of who they are and what they look like.

Unfortunately, there are several issues which distracted me from enjoying the book more. The first of which is finding the passive nature of the writing where consecutive sentences used the word “was.” I found addition of titles for each chapter to be a distraction since enough space hadn’t been allowed to develop this chapter to its full potential. Chapter 4 – “Time Lost” did remind me of “Moby Dick” where the chapter did not fill a page, but contained the word “thump” repeated numerous times. Having 37 chapters for less than 98 pages of actual text is, in my opinion, to be quite excessive is a bit excessive. These issues are forgivable since they can easily be edited.

However, factual descriptions are not; the description of the train ride from Southport into New York wholly inaccurate. The Southport station mention in the story is on New Haven Line of the Metro-North Railroad. While it does run more or less parallel to the Interstate [Route 95], there are no “forgotten throwaways of civilized society: the garbage, the smoke stacks of industry, and the poor” visible from of the train, nor are there any billboards advertising whiskey and free check cashing. Below 125th Streekt there are no Brownstone buildings that seemed to be just a few feet from the tracks bloced out the sky”, this is because the railroad runs on elevated tracks which are at least forty feet from the street be“low.

It is for this reason I can only give Ms. Sitler’s novel only 3 STARS.

I
found Megan Cyrulewski’s memoir, “Who Am I?” to be an extremely poignant, gut-wrenching
account of one woman’s journey into hell at the hands of her drug-addicted,
abusive husband, who also from a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In telling her story, the
author clearly pulled no punches in detailing the horrific accounts of what
she’d been forced to endure. One has to wonder why she allowed it continue for
as long as she did.

Ms.
Cyrulewski gave up so much to get nothing in return. She gave up her dream of
being an attorney because her husband wiped out the savings she had saved to
pay for it to pay off his enormous debts. A major part of his problem had been
he couldn’t hold on to any job he got,

Even
with this horrific relationship she agreed to have a child. When her daughter,Madelyne Rose, was born; her daughter became
the means by which she survived having anxiety disorder, panic attacks, post-partum
depression, visits to the psych ward, domestic violence which lead to her
finally getting a divorce.

“Who
Am I?” serves as a sign to any woman who has suffered or is suffering the same
kind of abuse, that there's hope for recovery and a new life.

It
is for this reason I’m not hesitating giving it the 5 STARS I’ve given it, 5
STARS which is richly deserves.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

The
topic of a woman becoming the President of the United States is not as new as
one might think. On August 21, 1964 Warner Brothers released a comedy entitled
“Kisses For My President,” which starred Polly Bergen as the Independent Party
Candidate, Leslie McCloud, who won the election to become the first woman
President of the United States. Fred MacMurray played her husband Thad McCloud.

While
Kenneth J. Kerr didn’t mention it, I believe he’d been highly influenced by the
ABC drama series “Commander in Chief” in the 2005-2006 television season in
writing this book. In the series Geena Davis plays the Vice-President,
Mackenzie Allen who ascends to the Presidency when the President, Teddy Bridges,
played by Will Layman, underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor and died. The Attorney General had told Vice President
Allen that if the President should die, the party wants her to step down from
the Presidency and allow the next one in line to assume the role. Naturally she
refuses.

However,
in “The First Madam President (and the dirty bombs), the author has her winning
the election directly. Many of the
episodes in the drama series dealt with the same issues which are contained in
the book; scandal, terrorism, etc.

I
found the pacing of the storyline to be somewhat uneven at times. The dialogue
felt stiff as well as being somewhat unrealistic as to what someone would have
said if this had been a real life event. It is for these reasons I’ve given
this book 3 STARS.

Disaster struck soon after I did my
last post which had been for my 12th book review here for Michael
Storrings New
York in Four Seasons, on October 14th, my computer died.
I called the concierge service I have on my computer from DELL. They walked me
through a series of things to do, none of which proved to be successful.
Unfortunately with the weekend approaching they couldn’t arrange for one of
their certified technicians to come to my home.

When Monday came I finally received a
call from the technician to arrange for an appointment to come to me, which
luckily would be the next day. But unfortunately the cards were against me and
he didn’t receive the part he ordered [the computer’s “motherboard”] this meant
he’d come to my home the next day [Wednesday].

I should have realized the dreary
overcast day with periods of rain would be the sign that nothing I’d hope will
come to pass. It turned out this would be the case, because try he might, the
technician could bring my computer back to life. He then immediately ordered
the power supply thing-of-ma-gig which distributes the power throughout the
computer. Luckily he’d come to my home before noon which meant the new part
would be able to be shipped later that day. This made it seven days, an entire
week; I’d be without the use of my computer.

In the morning I saw another dreary day
when I looked out of one of my windows, I prayed I wouldn’t have a repeat of the
day before. When the technician arrived on Thursday, I felt my heart
palpitating as he installed the new part and then hit the start button on the
front of the computer’s tower. When he did I heard the whirling sound of my
computer coming back to life, the operation had been 100% successful. He then
made sure all the settings for the computer had been correct before closing the
housing for the computer.

I thanked him profusely for bringing my
baby, my computer, back to life. However I still couldn’t actually use when he left
due to an appointment I needed to keep. When I finally turned the computer on
for the first time in almost eight days I had an unbelievable amount of emails
to sort through [almost 2,500] on all of my addresses, as well as other items
to handle.

The only good thing about all this had
been it afforded the time to complete editing for my anthology manuscript. It
took me the rest of Thursday and the entire day Friday to catch up with ALL of
my emails. Yesterday, Saturday, October 25th, I rested and entered
about 10 pages of edits/rewrites for my anthology manuscript.

I’m now sending out emails, tweets, etc
to/for people I couldn’t do for the pass 10 days.

This week I’d love to finish entering
my edits on my computer so I can replace the items I deleted, this time I’m
going to make sure I don’t need any editing my writing extra slow. Hopefully I’ll
be able to catch up on reading the e-books I haven’t been able to read and then
writing my reviews for each one.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Being a quintessential New Yorker I can safely say who wouldn’t enjoy a reading a book which captures the essence of the Big Apple month by month, through each season of the year?

New York in Four Season by Michael Storrings does precisely that. Starting with fall and the month September we’re taken through the year stopping at each of the main holiday or event for each season. Mr. Storrings’ wonderful full color illustrations definitely adds to the flavor of each of his descriptions which encapsulates the items he’s chosen to write about; albeit I’d hoped they would have been slightly longer.

This book is definitely something all New Yorkers who love their city should read at least once; this includes all those who’ve moved away and miss the wondrous sights, smells and sounds of the New York City through the year. It is also a book which would be enjoyed by all those of really love New York, but unfortunately don’t live here.

This review has been for an ARC [Advanced Reader’s Copy] for the actual finished book which I’ve received through a GiveAway on GoodReads; and is my honest opinion for the book for which I’m happy to give it my 5 STARS.

Lighting Over Bennett Ranch by Amber Daulton is the first cowboy romance I’ve read, and I found it quite an enjoyable read. The lightning in this story takes on several meanings in my opinion, with the first being, the name of Melody’s horse.

Lightning, in the form of love, is also what had first come into Melody’s life at the of seventeen when she fell in love with Max[imilian] Fortaine, a drifter ranch her father had hired one summer. They had decided to run off together, however her father her naked with him under some hay in one of the paddocks on his ranch. Max disappeared without a word to Melody.

Now, eleven years later, Melody is alone. With Max’s memory still in her mind, she’s set her standards high before she’ll allow another man to enter her life. The only man who succeeded had been Harvey Clausen, but with her catching him with another woman caused Melody to eliminate him as a possibility due to his being unfaithful.

Unbeknownst to Melody, Max has returned. Will the lightning strike again? Will Melody be able to rekindle the relationship she once had with him? Will Max still love her as he did before? And what will her father say this time, should she and Max get together again? The answers to these questions are in the book.

The shortest of this story, consisting of 51 pages, doesn’t diminish amount of the emotions being generated. Gone are all the fluff and other nonessential items contained in almost every other story dealing with similar situations; which is why I’m giving it 5 STARS.

I’d obtained this item some time ago as a FREE download when the title caught my eye on the internet. With a length of a mere 21 pages, it’s a real quick read of less than half-an-hour for almost anyone who reads it, which is one of the reasons I decided to finally read it today.

This item reads more like an easy to read monograph than anything else and gives us the basic facts of the phobia here in question, aquaphobia; and simplistic ways of treating and possibly curing it. There is a lot more to any psychological condition, in this case a fear or medically known as a phobia, than what has been presented here. I’m therefore giving this item 3 STARS since it is still informative and well suited to the interested layman for this condition.

I’d obtained this item some time ago as a FREE download when the title caught my eye on the internet. With a length of a mere 21 pages, it’s a real quick read of less than half-an-hour for almost anyone who reads it, which is one of the reasons I decided to finally read it today.

This item reads more like an easy to read monograph than anything else and gives us the basic facts of the phobia here in question, aquaphobia; and simplistic ways of treating and possibly curing it. There is a lot more to any psychological condition, in this case a fear or medically known as a phobia, than what has been presented here. I’m therefore giving this item 3 STARS since it is still informative and well suited to the interested layman for this condition.

Both fiction and non-fiction have their own set of “rules” which needs to be followed in order to make the final product successful.

While fiction can be anything/everything an author creates through the use of mere words; non-fiction can be not only rather dull to write, it can be quite boring to read; just recall the textbooks you needed to read in high school and college, containing one boring fact after another. And of all the various non-fiction subject matters an author can write about, biographies tend be the most daunting, especially if you want to do it well and not lose your audience’s interest in the process.

A person’s life is merely a collection of minutia of personal data; and this is where almost all biographers, in my opinion, fail in presenting this data to their readers in a manner which is not only informative but also entertaining.

Mark Whitaker, on the other, has succeeded in presenting an extensively researched biography of one of America’s best beloved entertainers, Bill Cosby. Mr. Whitaker, it becomes quite apparent as one reads this biography, uses his years of experience of being a reporter and editor at Newsweek, as well that of being the managing editor at CNN to create the work he has produced here.

The episodic approach used in writing this biography makes it read more like a novel than a biography, as each chapter of this book takes us through another phase in the life of Bill Cosby.

Mark Whitaker’s use of the reminiscences of Mr. Cosby and his friends and family, coupled with countless hours of research, followed by the apparent arduous task of gleaning all the information he’s collected into this book, makes each chapter come alive. Each chapter could have been viewed as an item on CNN.

In reviewing this book I feel it is more notable to concentrate on the attributes of the book itself rather than to dwell on any particular portion of the extraordinary life of Bill Crosby.

COSBY – His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker is a definite MUST READ for all those who have admired and appreciated any of the work Mr. Crosby has done, as not only as an entertainer or author, but as a humanitarian as well.

I’m therefore not hesitating in giving this book the 5 STARS it so richly deserves.

Please note I had received an early release copy of the final hardcover book through a giveaway drawing on GoodReads; and that the above has been my honest opinion of the book.

I’ve been quite busy since my last weekly status report trying to catch up with all the real physical books I’ve won from the giveaways on GoodReads. While I’ve posted all of my reviews on GoodReads.com, LibraryThing.com and Shelfari.com, I still can’t post two of them on Amazon.com because they’re ARCs [Advanced Reader’s Copies] and I have to wait until they become available to the public. One of them I’d received around August 21st, with a scheduled release date of October 9th; the book is now due to be released on November 1st. This is the reason for my posting so many of my reviews today.

I’ve finished formatting the pages of my anthology of Flash Fictions which I’ve entitled Micro Fiction – An Anthology. I’d originally planned to call it Five Sentence Fiction – An Anthology. However, to do editing some of the ones I’ve written are now longer than five sentences. I also have to double check the number of items I’ve included in this endeavor since my intention is to have a hundred of them; which means either I’ll have to write one or two additional ones or delete the excess. The excess will be going into my next Flash Fiction anthology.

In regards to my two other endeavors; my YA Urban Fantasy novella, The Secret of the Well, and my adult Contemporary His Darkest Secret, I’ll be doing a quick re-read to refresh my memory of what I’ve already written so I can continue my writing them. I’ll be concentrating my efforts to hopefully finish writing The Secret of the Well, by the end of this month; if not, my target date for completion is November 15th.

This is not to say, I’m going to ignore my other endeavor His Darkest Secret. I do want to make some progress here as well; and if I can write a minimum of a page a day, I’ll be happy.

Hopefully, in all goes as planned, I’ll be returning to a regular routine for all my writing endeavors; as well as for my presence on the internet.

About Me

I’m
a retired NYCity employee who’s been married for 22 sans
children.“I Kissed a Ghost”, a YA
[Young Adult] Paranormal/Time Travel/First Kiss romance, is my debut romance novel which got released in December 2012.

On December 1, 2014 - I released my second book, "Micro Fiction - An Anthology"

I’m in the process of writing several books:

An adult Contemporary with
a paranormal element running through parts of the storyline entitled “His
Darkest Secret." A MG/YA Urban Fantasy novella titled "The Secret of the Well" which is a stand-alone sequel to my first book.

In August of 2014, I began my 2nd second career, that of a Book Reviewer, As of July 8, 2016 I've read/reviewed 333 books, and my Amazon Reviewer Ranking is 4,662. I must be doing something right.